Thursday, November 29, 2007

Capital "H"

After more than 60 years, Nazi documents stored in a vast warehouse in Germany were unsealed Wednesday, opening a rich resource for Holocaust historians and for survivors to delve into their own tormented past.

The treasure of documents could open new avenues of study into the inner workings of Nazi persecution from the exploitation of slave labor to the conduct of medical experiments. The archive's managers planned a conference of scholars next year to map out its unexplored contents.

There they go again, privileging the "Holocaust."

Survivors have pressed for decades to open the archive, unhappy with the minimal responses - usually in form letters - from the Red Cross officials responding to requests for information about relatives.

"We are very anxious," said David Mermelstein, 78, an activist for survivors' causes in Miami, Fla., who wants to scour the files for traces of his two older brothers whom he last saw as he passed through a series of concentration camps.

"Now I hope we will be able to get some information. We have been waiting, and time is not on our side," said the retired businessman.

Izzy Arbeiter, 82, the head of a survivor's organization in the area of Boston, Mass., said he hoped to go to the museum next month to browse the files.

Izzy Arbeiter.

"My goodness, I don't know where I would start, there are so many things I am interested in," he said. "The history of my family, of course. My parents. One of my brothers is missing. We never knew what happened to him."

Of course, being a Jew, Izzy will get on that right after he tries to extort money from the Germans.